Lung disease is the third leading cause of death in the US. Nurses provide symptom management of lung disease by promoting smoking cessation for relief of dyspnea. Unfortunately, many continue to smoke despite the risk of pulmonary disease or disease exacerbation. In addition, the mechanisms of cigarette smoke induced pulmonary disease are not well known. This research will apply a conceptual model to study the effects of cigarette induced oxidant stress on gene expression, apoptosis, and oxidant stress measures in a normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) 3D in vitro model. In addition, this study seeks to elucidate the potential bronchoprotective effects of a novel natriuretic peptide (NHP 73-102). This proposal is a series of factorial design experiments. 3D NHBE cell cultures will be transfected with an NHP73-102 gene expression vector and exposed to cigarette smoke condensate (CSC). Microarray gene expression data, apoptosis/necrosis, and oxidant stress measures will be assessed and evaluated by cluster analysis and ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAriance) between groups respectively. The information gained in this study will provide unique data related to the effects of cigarette-induced oxidant stress and insight into the physiological mechanisms of NHP73-102 in the lung. [unreadable] [unreadable]